There are numerous medical procedures and devices in use today in which a medical device, generally tubular, such as a laparoscope, trocar, electrode, probe, introducer, or the like is inserted into the abdomen, chest, or body parts of a patient for performing some procedure or inspection after which the device is withdrawn. When the device is inserted, a wound results and hemorrhagic complications arise during the insertion and/or removal of the device. Until my invention, there was no known device which addressed the hemorrhagic complications arising from the wound. If complications arose, the wound was treated in accordance with sound medical practice employing conventional techniques.
Within the prior art, the use of gelatin as a substance for making medication capsules for internal use and adapted to be absorbed by enzyme action or other physiological processes within the body is well known. Also, the use of gelatin material for various surgical techniques has been well documented. In particular, the use of a gelatin material in a "sponge" form or as a foam is commercially available from the Upjohn Company under the trademark "Gelfoam". Gelfoam with and without thrombin, a protein which is active at the last stage of clot formation and functions to change fibrinogen to fibrin, has been used in surgery in virtually all organ systems including prostrate, brain, musculoskeletal, vascular graphs and other areas without adverse complications. The use of gelatin as a coating for a fabric, blood-vessel graft is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,106,483 to Kline et al dated Oct. 8, 1963, incorporated herein by reference.
The use of hardened gelatin as forming a part of a surgical instrument is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,358,684 to Marshall dated Dec. 19, 1967, incorporated by reference herein. In Marshall, the distal cutting edge of a cannula which is used as a parenteral injection device is formed from a thiolated gelatin material. Specifically, the gelatin distal tip punctures a vein, and eventually dissolves, leaving the proximal portion of the cannula within the vein for administrating parenteral solutions. The cannula can be thus left in situ without vein damage which would otherwise arise from the presence of a sharp needle or the removal of the sharp needle from the vein. In this sense, the prior art recognizes that it is known to use gelatin as a surgical instrument which can be dissolved at the insertion site.